This article explains various options to use USB drives as Datastores in VMware ESXi 8.0. Using USB-based Datastores can be useful for migrations, backups, testing, or in lab environments.
Please be aware that using USB devices as Datastore is not supported by VMware so be careful when using this method with sensitive data.
Read More »How to use USB Drives as VMFS Datastore in vSphere ESXi 8.0
This article explains how to add USB devices as Datastores in VMware ESXi 7.0. Adding USB devices as datastores was also possible in previous versions, but in vSphere 7 it has become even easier.
Please be aware that using USB Datastores is not supported by VMware so be careful when using this method with sensitive data.
In this example, I'm using a USB 3.0 to NGFF M.2 case.
Read More »USB Devices as VMFS Datastore in vSphere ESXi 7.0
When you try to mark USB-based Storage Devices as Flash in ESXi, the following error is displayed:
Cannot change the host configuration. Cannot mark disk mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0 as "Flash". "Unable to configure the disk claim rules. The disk is in use."
The error message is misleading as the issue is not the disk being in use. You have to configure an advanced setting in ESXi to allow USB disks to be claimed as flash.
Read More »Mark USB Storage Devices as Flash fails with "The Disk is in use" Error in ESXi
In ESXi 6.5, there are some changes concerning devices connected with USB. The legacy drivers, including xhci, ehci-hcd, usb-uhci, and usb-storage have been replaced with a single USB driver named vmkusb. The new driver has some implications if you are trying to use USB devices like USB sticks or external hard disks as VMFS formatted datastore.
Some people have reported that they have issues with USB Datastores since ESXi 6.5. I've tried to reproduce and fix those problems. This post explains the changes in the new version and how to create VMFS 5 or VMFS6 formatted USB devices as datastore on your ESXi host.Read More »USB Devices as VMFS Datastore in vSphere ESXi 6.5